Bord Bia has released new research that values annual retail sales of organic food at €99.1 million, up from €97 million last year, with almost 60% of consumers surveyed purchasing organic produce in the last six months. The research was funded by the Department Agriculture, Food and the Marine and carried out by Ipsos MRBI.
The research also demonstrated that 73% of current organic purchasers claim that a ‘local organic’ product proposition would increase their interest in buying organic produce, while 50% of all organic buyers agree that buying Irish organic food is very important to them.
Additionally, over a quarter of organic buyers reported that the amount of organic food they have bought in the last year has increased, with two-thirds reporting no change in consumption. Two thirds of all organic shoppers would also like to see an organic range located in the one place in stores.
The survey found that the top three factors that may encourage Irish consumer to buy more organic produce are price decrease, increase in range and increase in volume and variety of organic food produced in Ireland.
There are currently 1,721 registered organic operators in Ireland and over 52,000 hectares of land is being used to produce organic food.
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
